Sometimes you’ve just got to put your hands up and say “well played India, we were rubbish”. For that, my pedigree chums, was the truth in Mohali. India have been too good for us. Full stop. We always thought this would be a tough tour, and that we’d need to play at our very best to be competitive, but unfortunately we’ve played well below our potential. This has enabled our hosts to swing their collective boot and catch us square in the nuts. And yes, it stings a little. I’m particularly...
The 3rd Test Facepalm Thread
Day 3 I’ll just repeat the last thing I wrote yesterday afternoon: “I sense that tomorrow could be the crucial day in the series”. Well, I bloody hope not because India were all over us like a cheap churidar kurta. We struggled to take the last four Indian wickets – enabling them to pile up a commanding 417 – and then our top order fell in a heap before the close. It was utterly depressing. There were only two bright spots for England today. Their names were Adil...
The Friday Fudge
Forget Black Friday. This is the Friday Fudge – an altogether more appropriate name for anything involving English cricket (or indeed cricket in general). You all know the score by now: in posts like this I just ramble aimlessly about a variety of subjects rather than constructing well thought-out separate articles on individual topics. It’s just a cricketing stream of consciousness really. So where do we begin? Ah yes, the news that Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes have (definitely)...
The County Championship: An Old Friend
Sometimes the county championship seems so maligned that even the ECB has lost faith in it. Despite its thrilling finale back in September, many see the competition as an anachronism with no future. However, guest writer Hector Cappelletti begs to differ. He believes the championship has not only been pivotal in England’s recent successes, but also in Australia’s recent struggles. He explains all below … Australia’s spectacular collapse against South Africa in Hobart a couple...
About Gary Ballance, Batting and Toffee
“You can’t bat for toffee” a South African gentleman once told me in a club cricket match. At least I think it was toffee. The mind is apt to play tricks, so it may have been some other kind of confectionary or maybe not confectionary at all, and something altogether earthier. The thought struck me at the time that this was a slightly unfair and subjective statement. It’s all about the context and comparison of course. Compared to Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting – the chosen...
How A Sweet Tooth Left Du Plessis With A Sour Taste
The big news today is that Faf Du Plessis has been found guilty of ‘ball tampering’. The whole saga strikes me as rather odd. As supporters of a team that once threw jelly beans at opponents, we all knew the practice of sucking sweets was rife. Didn’t the ICC? Or is it only illegal when you get caught by television cameras? Guest writer Mike Foulkes investigates … Following the second Test match against Australia, South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis was charged by...
